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Apple Can Remotely Disable iPhone Apps
mikesd81 writes "Engadget reports Apple has readied a blacklisting system which allows the company to remotely disable applications on your device. It seems the new 2.x firmware contains a URL which points to a page containing a list of 'unauthorized' apps — a move which suggests that the device makes occasional contact with Apple's servers to see if anything is amiss on your phone. Jonathan Zdziarski, the man who discovered this, explains, 'This suggests that the iPhone calls home once in a while to find out what applications it should turn off. At the moment, no apps have been blacklisted, but by all appearances, this has been added to disable applications that the user has already downloaded and paid for, if Apple so chooses to shut them down. I discovered this doing a forensic examination of an iPhone 3G. It appears to be tucked away in a configuration file deep inside CoreLocation.'" Update: 08/11 13:07 GMT by T : Reader gadgetopia writes with a small story at IT Wire, citing an interview in the Wall Street Journal, in which this remote kill-switch is "confirmed by Steve Jobs himself."
Posting this undoes some moderation I've done to this discussion, but when I read this, I seriously needed a:
-1, Drank the Kool-Aid
moderation.
I talk about stuff.
Ooh! How dare you take the reasoned intelligent approach! Don't you know where you are?
Also, I agree. My friends bitch about my buying iPod, because its 'eeeevil Apple'. But they work well, I like the build quality, and I have never seen any compelling reason to buy any competing products.
ipods don't "phone home" and have "revocation lists".
they're dumb devices for playing music.
this thing is an abomination, and a spit in the face to people who bought the mac (computing) platform because of it's excellent balance between oss and proprietary.
I'll stick to the computing side, and you can keep your handcuffed iphone, and If I see them attempt to migrate any of the wondrous marvels of digital lockdown to my OS, i'll drop them like a bad habit for linux.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
What exactly does that mean? do you stretch your piss hole to epic proportions?
I'm glad I live in a walled garden where I can only play with the bunny rabbits that Lord Jobs has deemed safe and worthy. Hopefully next they'll come up with an Internet mirror...maybe call it something like Apple OnLine (AOL for short), and protect me from doing what I may do with a computer. Because they obviously know best what the Internet experience should be.
Evil? All corporations are pretty shady, Apple makes underfeatured, overpriced stuff, isn't that a good enough reason not to get an iPod? They also have similar audio quality to an FM radio from 1973 but only when playing lossless formats, iPods playing lossy formats sound like AM radio.
They are by far the best devices out there.
Someone mod this man funny!
Invariably people who compain about the price are peopl that can't afford them.
I can afford them, I just choose not to pay for overpriced hardware made by a company which is such a control freak, they make Microsoft look like a cute fluffy bunny.
As to "vendor locked", that's freetard talk.
Yeah, cause it's such an idiotic thing to want to be able to run the apps you want on the iPhone, or to be able to run Apple's software on any hardware which has enough muscle for it.
When I want the inferior crap that is Mac OS...
Fixed that for you.
...until then realise that it's only your preference, not a universal truth.
Well, most of us do realize that. I suggest you take your own advice, fanboy.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Ferrarri owners don't walk around sounding like cultists, and they don't falsely claim that the stuff they buy isn't overpriced. Until Apple owners can meet this reasonable standard, they will continue to get flamed.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Why is that? Because I don't believe the same as you? It was a bit of a rant, but with cause considering what it was a reply to.
oh right because he can install apps some other way? WRONG.
"You do realise that remote bricking/wiping is pretty much a standard feature on any smartphone being sold for use by businesses?"
examples please. I realise this CAN be built in WM, but show me a phone being sold to consumers that will let the manufacturer brick or remote apps at will?
"And from the opposite POV, imagine the negative publicity if some popular app went nuts and started trashing people's phones"
Don't worry i'm sure the apple fan boys will do a decent job of deflecting any kind of blame.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....